MODERATOR: Thank you, operator, and thank you all for joining this call. It’s a privilege to have – for your information, but not for reporting purposes – [Senior State Department Official] join us today. As a reminder, this call will be on background. [Senior State Department Official] will be known as a senior State Department official. With that, sir, I’ll turn this over to our senior State Department official.

Sir, go ahead.

SENIOR STATE DEPARTMENT OFFICIAL: Thank you very much. I’ll just make some brief opening remarks and then open this to questions.

As everyone knows, the October 2nd plebiscite resulted in a majority vote for the no campaign. It’s about a 51,000 vote difference between the two sides, and the turnout was about 37 percent. President Santos immediately recognized and accepted the results of the plebiscite, as do all of the international community, and recognize and respect the views of the Colombian people on this. Nobody in the plebiscite voted for resuming the war. That’s the good news. And President Santos has made it clear that he is open to and seeks a dialogue with those who voted no as well as those who didn’t vote at all, to see if he can build a new national consensus that will allow for a final peace settlement.

Both the FARC and the government reiterated their desire to maintain the current ceasefire. The UN monitoring and verification mission is still in place and playing the role that was intended to do so. The FARC and the government continue to cooperate in removing land mines and searching for the remains of disappeared to be returned to their relatives, cooperating in the return of child soldiers, cooperating in crop substitution and anti-narcotics, all of which are called for under the agreement. Secretary Kerry has been in touch with President Santos and reiterated strong U.S. support for the peace process. Obviously, Colombia is divided about the best terms on which to end this war through negotiations, because it’s not divided on the desire to end this war through negotiations. So it’s obviously up to Colombians to try to come to some new consensus that will allow the peace process to be finalized, and the United States stands ready to help that effort in any way the Colombian Government wishes us to do so.

I’ll just take questions and answers now – questions. I’ll give you the answers. (Inaudible.)

MODERATOR: Thank you very much, Senior State Department Official. Ray, if we could have you explain how to do questions, and then we can open our queue.

OPERATOR: Certainly. And ladies and gentlemen, if you wish to ask a question, please press * then 1 on your touchtone phone. You’ll hear a tone indicating you’ve been placed in queue. You may remove yourself from queue at any time by pressing the pound key. If you’re using a speakerphone, please pick up the handset before pressing the numbers. Once again, if you have a question, please press * then 1 at this time.

MODERATOR: Go ahead and queue our first question please.

OPERATOR: And our first question will come from the line of Josh Goodman with AP. Please go ahead. Josh, we have a live line for you.

QUESTION: Oh, sorry. I was on mute. Excuse me. Just curious to know, since you’re in Havana, what’s your gauge of how willing or not the FARC are to reopen negotiations. Obviously, you saw the comment from Timochenko that the agreement is done and it’s actually not a – it’s only a political problem, but legally the referendum had – should have no legal impact. I’m curious to know whether you see any wiggle room on the part of the FARC. And also, what about that argument? I mean, is the accord legally binding even though it failed the referendum?

SENIOR STATE DEPARTMENT OFFICIAL: That last question is up for the Colombian constitutional scholars to determine, but the president of the republic has made it clear he respects the results of the referendum. And after all, he called for it and said he would abide by the results. So the legal issues are secondary to that democratic and political commitment. The FARC spent four and a half years negotiating an agreement, they signed it at Cartagena, they thought that it would be ratified. And obviously, they’re facing a profoundly changed circumstance. I think they are aware of the new political reality in Colombia. They certainly made some constructive statements about maintaining the ceasefire, about continuing to use words to seek political goals, not weapons. Obviously, they have to consider what the options are. But they have made it clear they want the peace process to continue, and they want to negotiate a settlement to the war. So we’ll have to see how their position evolves, and obviously it will depend on what suggestions are made in terms of clarifying the agreement, if any such suggestions are made.

MODERATOR: Thank you very much to our senior State Department official. Operator, if you can move to our second question?

OPERATOR: Next we’ll go to Nike Ching with Voice of America. Please go ahead, and if you’re on mute, please release the mute button so you could speak with us.

QUESTION: (No response.)

MODERATOR: Go ahead and move to our third question, please.

OPERATOR: And next we’ll go to Laura Newton with Caracol Television. Please go ahead. Laura, if you’re on mute, can you release your mute button so you could hear from us?

QUESTION: (No response.)

MODERATOR: Operator, if you can move to our next question.

OPERATOR: And definitely, we’ll go to the line of Sergio Gomez with El Tiempo. Please go ahead.

QUESTION: [Senior State Department Official], thanks for doing this.

OPERATOR: Very good.

QUESTION: I was wondering – you already know what Uribe or Uribismo wants from the FARC. They have made it clear that they want them to spend actual time in jail and they would not have political recognition nor the possibility to run for public office. Do you think that’s something that the FARC would go with?

SENIOR STATE DEPARTMENT OFFICIAL: Well, I don’t – I think it is premature to ascribe a set of proposals to the CD until they speak for themselves. They’re committed to this dialogue, I believe, and that (inaudible) attempt to build a consensus. But I don’t want to speculate about what positions they may or may not take in that conversation.

MODERATOR: Thank you, sir. If we can move to our next question.

OPERATOR: And next, we’ll go to the line of Karen DeYoung, Washington Post. Please go ahead.

QUESTION: Thank you. Hi, [Senior State Department Official]. I wonder if you could tell us what exactly the Obama Administration is doing in order to get this process back on track. Has there been – have there been or will there be conversations with President Uribe? Is the United States attempting to play a part in inter-Colombian – leaving out the FARC for a minute – attempts to get this to reach some kind of consensus that would allow them to move forward? Has anybody been in touch with President Uribe?

SENIOR STATE DEPARTMENT OFFICIAL: The United States was invited by President Santos several years ago to become engaged in the process. That’s why we are engaged. We’re not there by our own volition. And President Santos has continued to ask us to try to be helpful where we can. And we’ve maintained a regular dialogue through our embassy’s Ambassador Whitaker with senior members of the Centro Democratico Party.

Both Ambassador Whitaker and I met with President Uribe during the process, not in the most recent weeks, but certainly have kept our open dialogue with him. As I said, Secretary of State Kerry spoke with President Santos yesterday morning and reiterated U.S. support for the process. I met in Havana this morning and yesterday with the government’s negotiating team, with the FARC, with the special envoy from Norway and Jean Arnault, the head of the UN MVM – the monitoring and verification mission. And we’ll continue, at the government’s request, to talk to parties where it might be helpful and to share our views and play a constructive role.

MODERATOR: Thank you very much, sir. If we could go to our next question, please.

SENIOR STATE DEPARTMENT OFFICIAL: And next we’ll go to the line of Rosalind Jordan with Al Jazeera English. Please go ahead.

QUESTION: Hi, thanks for having the call. I’m going to confess that I’m not as read in on this as my colleagues who work in South America are. When it comes to the process of the government negotiating with FARC, yes, I understand that President Santos said that there would have to be a referendum. Is the problem right now for both sides trying to figure out how to craft a revision of the plan that could pass muster in a plebiscite? Is that the immediate problem? Or do you see that they’re having to go back and restart all of the negotiations and take the chance that the population may vote against a revision of the deal?

SENIOR STATE DEPARTMENT OFFICIAL: I don’t think anybody in Colombia is talking about going back, starting brand new and not taking advantage of many of the things that were negotiated that have broad national support. I mentioned four of them – cooperation on removing landmines from the countryside; releasing child soldiers, which has already begun in (inaudible); helping provide crop substitution and for coca production; recovering the remains of disappeared Colombians from the war and reuniting them with their families.

But what the plebiscite clearly revealed was that while Colombians desperately want to see an end to violence and have, I think, appreciated the fact that the war has really been dormant for the last two years under the unilateral ceasefire, they are deeply divided about the terms on which they would settle a final peace agreement. And so what I think the government has said it is doing is to reach out to all voices and all sectors inside the country, including those who opposed the agreement, to listen to their views about why they took the stance they had and see whether their concerns can be addressed, and see whether a new national consensus can be built that would allow for the agreement to go forward. Whether there’d be a second plebiscite or not is not an issue that has been discussed and is probably not really germane at this point in the process.

MODERATOR: Thank you, sir. Can we go to our next question please?

OPERATOR: Next we’ll go to the line of Ramon Sahmkow with AFP. Please go ahead.

QUESTION: Hello, good afternoon. I didn’t hear very well the first part of your introduction, so I wanted to ask you, what will be your role in this next stage of the process? What is the advice you would give FARC or – and the Colombian Government? And are you optimistic that a new agreement or new negotiations will be set up before the 2018 presidential elections?

SENIOR STATE DEPARTMENT OFFICIAL: Well, my role is the same as it has been for the last nearly two years, which is to consult with the government, to try to be supportive of their goals, to try to be a interlocutor with both sides to help explain where each party is coming from and what its concerns are and, where possible, to suggest a solution to impasses. But this is a Colombian process. We’re just a side player at the request of the Colombian Government. The Colombians have to negotiate (inaudible) with Colombians, and I don’t want to suggest in any way that the U.S. is the key behind the scenes, because this is a Colombian process. And as far as the possibilities – look, the country’s been at war for 52 years and the population does not want to go back to war. The FARC does not want to go back to war.

So there’s a grounds to say that the possibility of achieving a new consensus is there given the strong desire of all Colombians not to see violence return. Whether or not the parties who now have to come together are able and willing to do so will probably be revealed in the next several weeks. But I don’t think anybody involved in the process is assuming that it’s not a – it’s not possible to create a new consensus.

MODERATOR: Thank you very much, sir. This will be our last question, operator. Can you queue next?

OPERATOR: (Inaudible.) And our final question will come from the line of Nike Ching with Voice of America. Please go ahead.

QUESTION: Thank you so much. My question is – hello, can you hear me?

SENIOR STATE DEPARTMENT OFFICIAL: Yes.

QUESTION: Okay. My question is: Is there any indication that the United States millions-dollar aid to Colombia may be affected after the peace deal was rejected? Thank you.

SENIOR STATE DEPARTMENT OFFICIAL: Well, there’s no discussions at this point within the government about the President’s request for assistance to Colombia and it’s not worth speculating on. Our hope is that the peace accord will go forward with a broad mass of support within the country, and the United States wants to be supportive of the implementation in areas that we have talked about in the past.

MODERATOR: Thank you very much, sir. And thanks to all of the journalists who were able to join this call. As a reminder, this call is on background. You could identify our speaker as a senior State Department official. There is no embargo. We’ll release the transcript as soon as we’re able. And thank you again for joining us. The call is concluded.

SENIOR STATE DEPARTMENT OFFICIAL: Thank you.